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Security at the southern border with Mexico has been a hot-button issue for the last few years and has since escalated with the election of President Donald Trump. During his campaign, it was perhaps his most talked-about issue and garnered countless hours of media and Internet attention from journalists across the entire political spectrum.

Citing illegal immigration and illegal drug trafficking, Trump’s call for border security has been looked at by some as one of the primary reasons he took the 2016 presidential election. Everyone in America, including people who didn’t follow along with the news, knew about Trump’s promise to “build the wall,” but building said wall has proven to be a lot more difficult than one would think over two years into his term.

With a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and President Trump in the Oval Office, it’s clear that practically no legislation relating to border security will make it to Trump’s desk to sign. This is understandable, as gridlock happens frequently in Washington. However, it wasn’t too long ago that many Democrats were resoundingly in favor of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Back on the campaign trail for president in 2008, then-Senator Hillary Clinton said “the Mexican government’s policies are pushing migration north. We need to secure our border with technology, personnel, physical barriers in some places,” and during her 2016 campaign said that she supported a barrier on the border numerous times as a Senator.

Current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a speech back in 2009, “when we use phrases like undocumented workers, we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration.”

President Bill Clinton called the abuse of America’s immigration system “wrong and self-defeating” in a speech to Congress during his time as President, and received a standing ovation.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and numerous other high-ranking Democrats have also used similar rhetoric regarding illegal immigration in the past. So, one would think that President Trump would have no problem receiving the $5.7 billion he asked for to cover a portion of the border, especially since that is pocket change compared to the total amount of taxpayer money that Uncle Sam brings in.

Based on what prominent Democrats have said in past years and how much money our federal government spends elsewhere, passing border-security legislation would be a no-brainer. However, it is clear that many across the aisle are willing to change positions in order to see our President fail.

The need for border security is common sense if we are to have a thriving nation. By all means, I support legal immigration so long as it’s done with process and order. After all, we are a nation of immigrants and the various aspects of cultures from around the world is one of the reasons why our country is great. But when we lose sight of the legal immigration process, we start to see horrible things happen to our country. According to FBI archives from 2010, “The Southwest border (SWB) of the United States is the principal arrival zone for most of the illicit drugs smuggled into the United States. Moreover, large sections of the nearly 2,000-mile land border between Mexico and the United States are both vast and remote, and this provides additional smuggling opportunities for Mexican DTOs.” It’s clear that a border wall would be able to help border patrol agents in covering the “vast and remote” land border. By preventing, or at least limiting, the smuggling of illegal substance into our country, our law enforcement will be more inclined to focus on matters within our borders.